The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-11-09


the Government to pass white
washing bill, for the purgatlon OF
the Financial Agents, in open dis
regard of the public interests which
it is the prime duty Of Ministers to
conserve. The facts may be gather
ed from antecedent publications,
from suggestions or admissions in
the reply of the Finance Minister,
and from the report of one OF the
Financial Agents of the Government
read to the Legislature yesterday,
but not as yet published.
1t appears that a Mr. II. X. Arm
strong arrived AZ Honolulu during
1886, ms the representative of a Lon
don syndicate, with an offer to float
loan for the Hawaiian Govern
ment, in that city. About that
time strong local feeling had been
worked up against the financial ar
rangements of the Government OF
the day for advances in Honolulu,
and there is no difficulty in connect
ing Mr.. Armstrong; mission and
subsequent transactions with this
local agitation. Everything was
done TO facilitate Mr.. IL. r.
Armstrong; mission, and the Loan
Act, as subsequently passed, was
framedl to meet the requirements of
the London syndicate. 1t was pass
ed by large majority, the votes of
the Opposition of that day, now sub
stantially represented by the Re
form Ministry, being cast in It's
favor.
Having secured their own Act and
an Administration of its own choiceto
facilitate operations, the Agent of
the Syndicate, Mr.. Armstrong, was
appointed Financial Agent of the
Government to negotiate the Loan
with his London employers, the
syndicate aforesaid. A man with
delicate sense of honor would have
shrunk from such a position, but
Mr.. Armstrong saw no difficulty in
his way, although Mr.. Green, with
a verdancy perhaps natural to him,
sympathises with this gentleman
in the difficult position in which he
was placed. In truth, it was
in the straight line of his
business. He reached London
and to meet the requirements of the
Syndicate he forgot his duty to the
Government and set aside the re-
quirements of the Loan Act. This
Act authorizes the issue of loan for
two million dollars, payable prin-
cipal and interest in United States
gold coin, but the Financial Agent
agreed that the loan should issue in
sterling money.
Mr.. Geo. w. Macfarlane had been
appointed Financial Agent of the
Government the same day as Mr..
Armstrong, but he spent his time
fitting to and fro between here and
San Francisco on the loan business
until after the Syndicate announced
the sale of the bonds, the loan hav-
ing been underwritten by themselves
at 50, by which they earned . per
cent, the maximum commission al
lowed by law, and then placed them
on the market at a premium, it is
stated, of s per cent. Not content
with this handsome realization,
charges in excess of law, amount
ing TO f15, 200, were made by and
through the Financial Agents OF
Syndicate which is the same thing,
as Colonel Macfarlane was an as
senting party to it throughout, and
now turns up at Honolulu at the
last moment as the representative
of the Syndicate-not of the Gov
ernment-with an elaborate and
rather ingenious defence of trans
action which will not bear the light
from inception to finish.
Now, it is clear that in the matter
of bonds, the Government has tC
deal with the Syndicate who bought
the loan aud subsequently peddled
out the bonds, and no tender senti'
mentality need be expended OF
these shylocks of finance. The mer
composing the London Syndicate
are we'll able to take care of them
selves, so are the twin-fnancia
agents, but Ministers do not appear
to be so capable of taking care of the
tax payers. They appear to have
been "caved down the bank"-.tC
quote famous phrase of the late
General Cotton regarding a memoir
able compact which recently engaged
the attention of the Courts of Cali
formally the Financial Agents OF
some "power behind the Throne
greater than the Throne itself" 1
is the duty of the Legislature to dt
justice to the country as well as tt
the Syndicate, which, knowing thu
law-for it was their own law
deliberately violates it, and attempts
to gouge the Hawaiian Treasury OF
a threat of impairing the nationa
credit. The apology of the Minister
of Finance for these doings, and fol
the participants in them, is not be
coming in the Prime Minister Of TIT
Hawaiian Kingdom.
FINANCE.
Honolulu, Nov. 8, 1887.